Baby Pangan Update ... Posted 5/18/2011

I had my ultrasound at Baptist this afternoon. Chad couldn't get off work so my Mom decided to join me.  They took me back to scan me and she was showing us all the babies parts again and of course doing a lot of measuring. The plan was she would scan me and then the doctor would review the scans and then come speak to me. When the doctor came to speak to me we talked a while about what was going on and then she talked about what she saw on the scans.  She stated what she could see looked good but that they were not able to see the heart and the spine as well as they liked. We talked a lot and they are thinking that there is an issue with the way the baby is growing. This could be a lot of things some of which are really scary and some are pretty much nothing at all.

She talked about 4 different things that it could be at this point.  First it could be a genetic disorder or a chromosomal issue, second it could be an infection that is causing the baby to not grow properly,  third it could be that the baby is not getting what it needs from the placenta and fourth it could be just small baby.  She doesn't think that there is anything wrong with the placenta because there is ample fluid around the baby and since that comes from the baby urinating if there was an issue with the placenta and the baby not getting what it needed they normally would see low fluid levels. She also did say that the baby is uniformly smaller than normal so it is not like one area is smaller than it should be which is another good thing.  The babies heart rate is 153 which is also good.

We decided on the following game plan.  They drew blood today to test for infection and to do the quad 4 genetic testing as well as test for the placenta just in case.  I will be scanned again June 9th.  They want to scan the baby again in a few weeks at the same office so they can see the growth over time.  Since I am measuring at 16 weeks 5 days (should be around 18 weeks 3 days) then they want to see where I am measuring at that time.  That will help a lot they said.  I am not a huge fan of the quad 4 because it can give a false positive and the only way to know for sure is amniocentesis.  However I decided to do it because if it comes back with very little chance then that could rule out a genetic disorder as the likely culprit.  If it comes back that there is a big chance then we would consider an amniocentesis if the ultrasound also shows something.   The infection testing is a 2 part testing to measure my level of antibodies so we won't know if it is that for at least 3-4 weeks as well.

We could do all this testing and it all come back negative and the baby just be small.  That is still an option.  Chad was only 6lbs 12 oz and his sister was only 6lbs 1 oz and they were full term babies. I wasn't huge either at a little over 7 lbs. While a lot of this is scary, I still feel like we don't know much more than we did Friday except now we just know a little more about the WHAT IF's.  The way I look at it is that there isn't any need to get all upset about something we don't know yet and stressing about it all the time is just as bad for the baby. So until there is something to get upset about I am going to continue to be optimistic and pray for the best out come.  We continue to ask God to help give us strength and guidance during this time!

Well I just wanted to update you all on what we didn't find out today! ;)  They gave us a few more ultrasound pics which I will post.  They did show us the babies sex again and it was the same as they told us on Friday but we are going to wait until after the June 9th ultrasound to share just to be sure!

I do want to thank you all for your kind words and prayers!

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